Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree National Park is located in southeastern California. Declared a U.S. National Park in 1994 when the U.S. Congress passed the California Desert Protection Act, it had been a U.S. National Monument since 1936. It is named for the Joshua trees native to the park. It covers a land area of nearly 800,000 acres - an area slightly larger than the state of Rhode Island. A large part of the park is designated wilderness area. The park straddles the border between San Bernardino County and Riverside County, theh park includes parts of two deserts, each an ecosystem whose characteristics are determined primarily by elevation: the higher Mojave Desert and lower Colorado Desert. The Little San Bernardino Mountains run through the southwest edge of the park